The Official Site for the Lackluster Goings-On of Michael Kaiser
Posts tagged travel
Sleep Running
Mar 11th
Eleven days of working out straight. I alternate between running and strength training, which barely affords my crippled, old body the rest it needs after I thrash a section of it. So far so good, except today I half-assed my run because I couldn’t shake some lung wheeziness. It happens. I’m fairly confident I’ll be where I want to be by race day, and if not, live and learn. At least I’ll be in a better place than I was last week.
The Dude wakes up two or three times a night, but the the third time is usually around when my alarm would be going off anyway, so it’s really just the midnight and 2am bits that aren’t working for me. Lately I think I’ve been sleeping through it more though, which makes me feel somewhat bad, because then The Girl has to do everything. But when I was waking up for it, The Girl had to do everything anyway, because she’s the only one who can do what he’s crying about…aka feed him. I’m not sure why I feel compelled to be awake just because she is, but I do. I was raised Catholic, what can I say? Guilt it my imaginary friend. The sucker’s getting big though, up the 11+ lbs already. Can’t wait until he grows a neck or becomes a little more mobile. He’s like carrying around a jellyfish all the time right now.
The Kid seems to grow another inch with each passing weekend. I think she’s trying to be taller than me. She’s learning to read and do math too. I think she’s trying to be smarter than me. I don’t like this. I want her to stay short and dumb, but she apparently has other plans. Hopefully when the time inevitably comes I can still take her, or at least out run her!
Off to the in-laws next month. Looking forward to getting the hell out of Dodge and sleeping in. Hopefully it’s not too hot. Of course, for some reason we scheduled the trip to at the same time WonderCon is going on, so I guess I’ll miss that once again. I used to go religiously, but since I got out of the game I’ve missed the last three years. I’d like to go again some day, but there’s always next year!
Everything’s Bigger and Junk
Oct 26th
Went to Austin, TX for work. Other than layovers in airports, don’t think I’ve ever been to Texas before. Can’t say I completely immersed myself in the experience. The problem with trade shows is that after the day is over, I’d rather find a quick and close place for dinner and then crash in my hotel room, rather than spend all my free time in tourist mode. But here are some things I learned about Austin without really trying:
That thing up there is what’s called a Great-Tailed Grackle. They plagued the block where my hotel was located. Like scary plagued. Only at night too, for whatever reason. Maybe that’s when they come out to get their breeding on or something. The first night we got there, we were dropped off at the wrong Hilton (because there are apparently three Hiltons in the downtown area located within five blocks of each other – it’s good to be Paris), and hoofing our way to the correct hotel in the dark and in the rain, we came across a tree that suddenly exploded with Grackles Gone Wild. Apparently we scared them! Every night after that, the sky and neighboring trees were filled with them. Every morning the street and parked cars were painted with their waste. I have no idea if Daphne du Maurier ever visited Austin, but I’m betting! Don’t believe me? Check this out!
Austin, TX loves their Texas Longhorns. Every building, every street, every time I turned my head, someone or something was sporting a longhorn symbol and colors. The sports dummy that I am, I didn’t realize the logo applies to multiple sports, so that helps explain its prevalence, but I still don’t see that sort of thing around here, and we have our colleges too. Texans are really into the pride thing.
Speaking of pride, the two times I was on the freeway I couldn’t’ help but notice that every car had a Texas bumper sticker. You’re right, I’m lying. It was more like 1 out of 3 cars, but dang! We get it people, Texas is the most awesomest toughest specialist place on earth!
There are all these big guitar statue things everywhere, painted differently, much like the cows in that other city that escapes me. I asked a waitress why and evidently Austin is know for its live music. I did not see or hear any, but it must be true because otherwise the big guitars all over the place wouldn’t make any sense.
This is where I am going to go to buy my bike. (As soon as I have money and learn how to ride.)
Slow and Steady Loses the Race
May 5th
WOW, I think I skipped an entire month. Perhaps Twitter is ruining my blogging enthusiasm. So much easier to write a one sentence thought rather than construct entire paragraphs. Da horror!
So what have I done? A bunch of stuff. In-Laws came and went again. (They still think I hate their visits, but I really do like it because somehow I end up watching way more of the TV I want when they’re here. Not sure why it works out that way, but I am not going to question it.) Went to Seattle on business. Been there once before, and like last trip, ate at the Space Needle and did not have time to hit the Experience Music Project nor the Sci-Fi Museum and Hall of Fame. Must visit that city when not working someday. (I managed to peak inside the Sci-Fi Museum when it was closed and saw a huge Gort in the lobby. Coool!)
But inbetween all that I did something worth doing, for once. As I may or may not have stated before, a buddy of mine and I agreed to run a 5K, 10K and 1/2 Marathon by September of this year. We set this goal last September, giving us a year to do it, so of course we’re just getting started now, because lazy is our M.O. We settled on the Mission City 5K Run for Fun held at Great America. It was their first year doing this, and it was pretty cool. You run through the park, which was nice, but then the last half of it involved circling around many a parking lot, which wasn’t as nice, but by then I was so tired I didn’t really care about the ambiance. The cool thing is they close the park down for the runners to enjoy after the event, and the price of admission is included in the race price, which was all of $20, so that’s about as cheap as Great America gets. Of course, I didn’t have time to stick around and enjoy the park, but perhaps next year I can drag the family with me and make a day of it.
I can’t say I trained for this very hard. I knew about for a month and started running at the gym a week prior. (See M.O. above.) It hurt, but I did better than I thought. I only stopped once, about half way through it, for about a minute. Legs hurting me didn’t stop me, a mild asthma attack didn’t stop me, feeling the contents of my stomach crawling up my neck stopped me pretty quick. There were children present, I didn’t want to scar any of them for life. After a brief catching of breath and a quick shot from my inhaler (I know ladies, could I be more sexy?) I finished fairly strong. That is to say I finished #338 out of 560, so not strong strong, but winning wasn’t the goal at all, just completing. Considering how little I trained, I’m fairly happy with my 12 minute mile average.
Time: 37.23. Beat that losers! (Sooo sad…)
Next stop is the 10K. No plans yet on which one, but I don’ t think I can get away with no training this time, so I signed up at Snaps Fitness, which is a 24/7 gym literally right across the street from my house. If I can’t make that work, well…that would be sad.
Two Rings To Rule Them All
Oct 13th
The Girl and I went to San Francisco and hit up Giraux’s again, to get both my ring and her wedding band. No pictures because we had to order the right size, but I think they looked great. Once again, went a bit over budget, but I have to look at this thing the rest of my life, so I might as well be happy with it. Going to be weird to wear jewelry all the time. I have a feeling I’m going to be playing with my finger habitually for a good while.
Last night, I finally put an end to the Harry Potter series. I’ve been working on them off and on (mostly on) since 2007, so it only took me two years to read seven books. Very sad. An extremely enjoyable adventure that I am more than happy to be done with, because I can’t wait to read something else now that doesn’t have a character named “Potter” in it. It’s been a while! But exhaustion aside, it really was a pretty good series, especially after it got past the first few books and started getting serious about all-out-war. It was a nice transition from boy to man, and I’m glad Rowling wasn’t afraid to kill very important people along the way. I have some objections to the last book, but I’m not sure if they’re legit problems or just fanboy reactions as to “how I would have done things” even though it’s not my book. Probably the latter, and the fact that I’m still thinking about means it was impactful, one way or the other. So two thumbs up for Harry Potter, as if the entire rest of the world didn’t already know that.
Speaking of “two thumbs up,” I also managed to watch between chapters the two and a half hour epic There Will Be Blood. Well uh…I liked it but again, much like No Country For Old Men, it kinda went nowhere and close to three hours is a long time to invest in something that goes nowhere. That said, I give TWBB a much higher mark than NCFOM, and found this review by Roger Ebert interesting, specifically this passage:
“There Will Be Blood” is the kind of film that is easily called great. I am not sure of its greatness. It was filmed in the same area of Texas used by “No Country for Old Men,” and that is a great film, and a perfect one. But “There Will Be Blood” is not perfect, and in its imperfections (its unbending characters, its lack of women or any reflection of ordinary society, its ending, its relentlessness) we may see its reach exceeding its grasp. Which is not a dishonorable thing.
So…NCFOM is a perfect film, but TWBB isn’t, and one of the reasons is the ending? I’m sorry Roger, I like you and junk, but that’s insanity. NCFOM HAS NO ENDING! NOTHING HAPPENS! You sit there for three hours mesmerized by performances and waiting for the big payoff and everyone just walks away to do their own thing. The protagonists death is so inconsequential and random I didn’t even know he was dead for fifteen minutes! The bad guy gets away, the good guy never comes close to catching him, never even meets him; Woody Harrelson shows up to give us hope and is gone ten minutes later. Neither film is perfect for me, but I enjoyed TWBB much more, and even if the ending is somewhat random, at least the squirmy jerkboy gets what’s been coming to him, and that’s satisfying. Okay, venting done. Perhaps I should stick to chick flicks. They always end nice.
I haven’t had soda today, I brought food from home instead of buying something, and I flossed this morning. Go me.
Party Like a Princess
Oct 7th
The engagment photo shoot went off without a hitch. (That comes in December – get it? Nevermind!) The photographer gave us some pointers up front, and told us if it feels unnatural it probably looks good, so I’m thinking the majority of the pictures will look good, because man did those poses feel unnatural! I’ll post ‘em when I get ‘em.
The Girl’s mom and nieces have been in town. I see why some people like going to work. Oh not that they are horrible or that I didn’t have a great time with them this weekend, but just as a place to decompress and hear myself think, work has a reason to be appreciated now beside the paycheck.
Saturday we went to the Roaring Camp Railroads in Santa Cruz. Never heard of it and it was pretty fun. The Kid has been bugging us about going on a train for months now, for some reason, so it was cool to watch her get it out of her system. Her new goal professionally is to be a cook, train driver and princess. Sounds like she’s going to be busy!
Sunday we spent 4 hours shopping and it felt like 18 years and I got tired.
Monday I went to work, while The Girl took a half day and went on a much longer shopping spree with the family. The Kid got her ears pierced (another thing she’s been bugging us about for months). Then my family and her family and few of her friends met at Johnny Corino’s to celebrate her birthday. Good food, good wine and good times. We met back at our house for some cake and birthday presents and to pass around the tiara, y’know…the usual! It was a fun long day and we all crashed accordingly.
Today is The Girl’s actual birthday. I think the plan is to go to the pumpkin patch.
